There are many ballot measures that various states will consider when voters head to the polls next week for the mid-term elections. Among the ones I am watching, and perhaps the top one on my list, concerns bear hunting in Maine.
I have always had a deep love of bears and find the way they are hunted in places like Maine to be simply nauseating.
In Maine, a bear hunter where the most permissive rules exist in any of the 32 states where these beautiful animals are allowed to be hunted, can use bait and dogs long with traps to do their dirty deed. I am not sure what moral compass guides these types of hunters but I am glad I do not need to take their conscience with me when I close my eyes at night.
If you want to be upset over the morals of this type of killing consider that using bait for a bear, that is often on the prowl for food, consists of using typically sugary human food such as doughnuts. Where is the internal guidance system that says it is OK to lure a bear with something delicious so an animal can be slaughtered? How is this fun? More importantly how is this legal?
With some hard work over the past months it is hoped that voters in Maine will ban all of these methods of killing bear. There is simply no sport–if you wish to use that term–by using these methods when hunting bears. While the path to victory is uphill as this is after all one of those issues where gun owners and hunters will throw all sorts of money to defeat it–while decrying needing to pay more for schools–we will watch to see what the final numbers are to gauge how to undertake similar measures in other states.
And make no mistake about it–that is what makes hunting groups sweat.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 